SECon 2022: the Western Balkans Conference for Social Entrepreneurship
On 4 May 2022 the Social Entrepreneurship Observatory and HASTE (Tirana) held the Western Balkans Conference for Social Entrepreneurship, SECon 2022, on Zoom. The theme was ‘The Challenges of Developing a Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem’. More than 70 participants from the public, private and civil sectors and from social enterprises followed the conference, which had more than ten speakers from the region.
The Swedish Institute supported the conference. SE Talks and CHIP were partners. Stefan Chichevaliev, Executive Director of the Observatory, and Nensi Dragoti, CEO of HASTE, hosted and moderated.
Programme and speakers
The opening included addresses from the Swedish Embassy (North Macedonia and Albania), the Swedish Institute and Barbara Sadowska. Paul Coyle, Founder and Director of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Network, gave the keynote, and Gerhard Bräunling and Abel Díaz González introduced the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The session on Western Balkans ecosystems and the stories of social entrepreneurs brought together:
- Edona Bilali, Minister of State for the Protection of Entrepreneurship, Albania
- Juliana Hoxha, Partners Albania, representing the DIESIS Network
- Anto Janković, President, Center for Economic Prosperity and Freedom (CEPS), Montenegro
- Dejan Stojanovikj, Executive Director, IN VIVO, North Macedonia
- Snežana Andrić, President, Young Ambassadors, Serbia
- Ylli Hashani, researcher, Innovation and Training Park Prizren, Kosovo*
- Selma Sumar, researcher, Faculty of Economics, University of Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Eridla Krasi, social entrepreneur, Solidarity Shop Berat, Albania
- Selahattin Ciritci, trainer, Turkish National Agency
Group discussions on policies, challenges and needs closed the day.
Country profiles
For the conference, the Observatory prepared short social entrepreneurship profiles of the Western Balkan countries. Each was written by a researcher, practitioner or scholar from the country. The profiles feed into the Observatory’s work on the Social Entrepreneurship Index.
Watch the full conference on YouTube (3 hours 37 minutes) · Conference archive
SECon returns in September 2027.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.